Suggested website:

Suggested Zen Books:

Now in a 35th Anniversary edition, The Three Pillars of Zen is generally regarded as the "classic" introduction to Zen Buddhism, and along with Shunryu Suzuki's Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, has probably helped more westerners begin Zen practice than any other book.

Warner, an early-'80s hardcore punk musician, discovered Zen in college, moved to Japan to make B-grade monster movies, and eventually became a bona fide Zen master by formally receiving "dharma transmission." Yet true to his punk spirit, he relentlessly demands that all teaching, all beliefs, all authority-including his own-must be questioned. ("Why should you listen to me? Who the hell am I?... No one. No one at all.")

A respected Zen master in Japan and founder of the San Francisco Zen Center, Shunryu Suzuki has blazed a path in American Buddhism like few others. He is the master who climbs down from the pages of the koan books and answers your questions face to face. If not face to face, you can at least find the answers as recorded in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, a transcription of juicy excerpts from his lectures.

The Compass of Zen is a simple, clear, and often hilarious presentation of the essential teachings of the main Buddhist traditions--culminating in Zen--by one of the most beloved Zen Masters of our time. In his many years of teaching throughout the world, Zen Master Seung Sahn has become known for his unique ability to cut to the heart of Buddhist teaching in a way that is strikingly clear, without relying upon esoteric or academic language. In this book, based on his talks, he presents the basic teachings of Buddhism in a way that is wonderfully rich and accessible for both beginners and long-time students.

Nothing Special : Living Zen, by Charlotte J. Beck
"Joko Beck speaks from the timeless and the perennial, so her metaphors of ordinary things and everyday incidents illumine my mundane life. Nothing Special is Zen alive and how to live it." Robert Aitken, author of Taking the Path of Zen

Not Always So : Practicing the True Spirit of Zen, by Shunryu Suzuki
If you can imagine Zen Existentialism, Not Always So is it. Part instruction manual for Zen practice and part philosophical meditation, Shunryu Suzuki's teachings emphasize being-in-the-world. He does not point toward a singular enlightenment-event as a burst into higher consciousness. Rather, he suggests a more experiential enlightenment that finds meaning in a full awareness of the present. For example: "If you go to the rest room, there is a chance for enlightenment. When you cook, there is a chance for enlightenment. When you clean the floor, there is a chance to attain enlightenment."

Saturday, July 30, 2005

PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. Walking in the heat, three Zen Buddhist monks continue their trek to New Mexico's Trinity Site, the once top-secret birthplace of the atomic bomb.
The monks are walking to call attention to the dangers of nuclear war.

They spent some time this week in Phoenix before heading off to New Mexico.

One monk is carrying the 'Atomic Lantern,' lit from the embers of the Hiroshima bomb.

The monks are set to arrive at the Trinity Site August 9th to mark the 60th anniversary of the Nagasaki bombing.

The monks will then extinguish the flame as a symbolic ceremony for the hope of disarmament worldwide.

When you do meditation practice, there's a lot of pain. You're sitting there cross-legged, which is not a Western way of sitting. You look at the pain in the knee, and you witness: 'That's pain in my knee.' It's really amazing that, as you look at it in this kind of nonjudgmental, not clenching around it, freaking out [way], it starts releasing.

Friday, July 29, 2005

So [Buddha] figured out that deep and meaningful spiritual practice is not about trying so hard to get something. He realized quite the opposite: deep and meaningful spiritual practice is about letting go of getting something. It’s an activity that operates outside of our usual habit of trying to get what we want and avoid what we don’t want. The kind of meditation he discovered, and the insight that arose from that practice, is that to have a happy life we really need to work with out impulse to chase after happiness. We have to work with out mind to release ourselves a little from this very strong knee-jerk reaction we all have to try to grab onto things we desire, and push away things we dislike.

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Zen Buddhism for me has primarily been focused on two things: 1) reaching an understanding of self and worldly existence, 2) using this understanding to live an ethical life. I spent a lot of time on #1. I don’t think I “get” it all but I feel I have enough of a basis–both intellectual and experiential–that #2 has increasingly become more important to me. What choices can one make? How does one follow the precepts and the eightfold path? How can one work towards the enlightenment of all beings?

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

You should read the whole thing, this excerpt is just to whet your appetite:

The first exercise was the mirror - one that I had done many times before. However, she coached us into the mirror urging us to “follow the follower” - where no one is leading and both are following. I knew the sidecoach phrase ‘Follow the Follower” and I thought I had an understanding of it but, I had never been coached like this. Viola’s coaching seemed to keep me constantly off-balance. I didn’t seem to have a chance to copy the movements of my partner. Yet I was doing the movements. Viola’s timing and other comments began to have an effect on me that I had never experienced. I started to loose control. I began to tremble. The harder I fought to accomplish the mirror the more I trembled. Viola yelled into my ear, “Follow the follower!” “Let it flow!” “Let it Flow!”

I really was shaking now. It was a vibration like trying to hold a jet in flight while crashing. The harder I yanked on the stick to gain control, the more I shook. Eventually she called the exercise to an end and released me from this condition. I was ‘shaken’, literally. I sat there dazed. Viola came up behind me put her hand on my shoulder and addressed the class. “Now you see, this young man here had a direct experience[1]. He actually got to see Marty.” (The woman I did the mirror with). She went on “I would guess it was the first time he ever really saw anyone in his entire life.”

Friday, July 22, 2005

No mind, no Buddha, what does that mean? If you strongly practice mantra at that time there is only one mind. One mind means empty mind. Empty mind means before thinking. Before thinking means no speech, no words. Before thinking is true mind, true Buddha. So, no mind, no Buddha.

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

I might have posted this before, but it's worth reading again in any event:

We practice Zen in terms of two essential questions, both of which point directly to the suffering of this world and our role in it. First, 'What are you doing right now?' In other words, 'What are you? What is a human being? Why are you on this planet, right now, right here? Right now!' Second, 'Why do you do what you do?' The Buddha's enlightenment connects with us at this moment through these two questions. Actually, these two questions are one question: What are you? This is the great question of life and death.

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

When you forget the good and the non-good, the worldly life and the religious life, and all other dharmas, and permit no thoughts relating to them to arise, and you abandon body and mind—then there is complete freedom. When the mind is like wood or stone, there is nothing to be discriminated.

Thursday, July 14, 2005

To begin the path is like being an explorer facing a tangled jungle, which is the unexplored mind. The explorer (us, you and me) intrepidly enters the Way; the end of suffering is in there somewhere in this jungle. We want to find it. At first there seems to be a path, but suddenly it changes, disappears, the treasure map is wrong. We, the novice explorers, get rapidly lost in the emotional and mental paths which branch out all over the place. We start out thinking that the path is clear and apparent, but then it seems to disappear and all we see is a jungle maze for quite a while. We begin with a naive notion; we have an idea of path which is not the path itself, it’s just an idea, and, like any other idea, subject to change, tumult, suffering…the whole works of illusion and delusion. The path is simply the experience of actually walking, or training, but, at first, you really think you have a goal which is graspable, like the treasure of Nirvana or some such.

P.S. ZenFilter is going on vacation for a few days. Just meditate till I get back.

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Question: 'Many Americans seem to think of the characters in Zen stories as being individualistic, 'cool' guys with lots of 'attitude.' Is this accurate?'

It is a truism that we see what we are looking for. There are a number of areas in which Zen looks familiar and attractive to Americans, which is why Zen lore has been able to enter our popular culture so easily. Bodhidharma walks out of the 'West' into China and seems to resemble some lone gunman entering a dusty cattle town. He is brought before the Emperor, who proceeds to tell him about all the temples he has built and good works he has done. The Emperor then asks how much merit he has earned for these activities and Bodhidharma says 'No merit.' The familiar pennywhistle sounds in our mental soundtrack and we seem to be watching A Fistful of Dharmas. The mondo, or dharma combats, that make up so many of the koans and Zen stories are full of characters who seem to us very quick on the verbal draw, unpredictable, and even violent.

Monday, July 11, 2005

'The principle of causation means that those who practice will realize enlightenment. It's as straightforward as that.' The point is, cause and effect means, if you practice you will see it, automatically. That's why Dogen Zenji says practice and realization are one, because of the law of cause and effect. If you practice, you will see it. He says, 'Practice well.' If you have faith, doubt, determination, keep on going. You will see it. And, as a matter of fact, you are it right now, and it is not a matter of doing anything, except practice well. At some point, we have to see it. It's not something we create or conjure up. It's right here ready to be revealed.

Saturday, July 09, 2005

I'm just thinking about how it seems that we...okay, maybe just *I* get fucked up with Zen, thinking it is 'a certain way'...we're either Zen or we aren't, in any given situation. But doesn't that lend to an idea that there is some correct way of thinking and behaving? If there is a correctness, then all the Zen Masters would essentially be saying the same thing...but they don't...well, they sorta do...but then they don't.

If we respect individuality, then we must respect how individuals come up with their own way of living, interpreting and dealing with the miracle.

Thursday, July 07, 2005

Contentment is often considered the fulfillment of desire. I don’t know if any of your desires have ever been satisfied, but when mine have, they are pretty quickly replaced by new desires. I heard about a study done with people who had won the lottery and instantly became multi-millionaires, and it concluded that the happiness they felt when they heard that they had won lasted about five minutes. I don’t know if this is true, but I think the habit of wanting, of reaching away from ourselves, is so strong for most of us, that it just overtakes us.

Saturday, July 02, 2005

The wartime complicity of Zen institutions is hardly news to scholars of Japanese religion, but this is the first study in English to present detailed evidence and address the important issues at length. A few years ago Rude Awakenings (ed. Heisig and Maraldo) provided a potpourri of essays on Kyoto School nationalism which offered contradictory opinions of its founding fathers impossible for a nonspecialist to adjudicate. Zen at War is a more accessible overview that focuses primarily on institutional Buddhism, especially Zen, from 1868 to the present day.